Nightmares In The Wind
by SweetNocturnalBliss
Summary: Eliot finds Parker standing on the ledge of her pent house balcony with no rigging. Please read the author's note inside. I apologize for any inconvenience.


AN: My fault, I was so excited to post, I forgot all the formalities! First off this is a one shot. There is no more. Second off...

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor do I profit, except in my dreams. :)

Another nightmare had brought Parker to the balcony of her penthouse. Forty three stories up, she looked over the edge. Parker couldn't jump. She learned a long time ago there were too many nosey neighbors who had nothing better to do with their time than stare out the window. Or sometimes they were just eating dinner. Whatever.

Still she wanted to. Parker loved the free fall. It was fast, exhilarating, and freeing. When you're falling nothing can catch you. Not even the nightmares.

The wind whipped her face. It blew towards her penthouse, meaning there was nothing from the side or back that could throw her off balance from this height. Parker stepped up on the stone ledge. Spreading her arms out, she tilted her head back and let the wind caress her skin.

Parker didn't have a death wish. She knew the fall would kill her, but sometimes she wondered what it would be like without the gear. Could someone really fly without wings? She pushed the thought away, trying to hold onto her lucidity.

She thought sometimes the team believed that Parker faked her insanity. They looked at her strangely a lot, but she was who she was. Her brain didn't work like everyone else's. Parker saw things differently, she heard the world differently. She had to, or she would have been dead a long time ago.

The wind pushed against her. Parker pushed back, letting it swipe against her skin, letting it take the memories of the nightmare away.

Someone's arm wrapped around her stomach pulling her off the ledge, hard and fast. After the initial confusion she realized she was lying with her back against a body. That was too much for her. The wind didn't take away the nightmare, not all of it.

She elbowed the body, hearing a grunt and the arms loosened. Parker pulled herself away and spun around, getting into one of the fighting stances Eliot had taught her. Confusion twisted her features as she looked at her assailant.

"Eliot?"

"Yes, Parker, damn it!" He grunted getting up. If it had been anyone else he would have been in full fight stance ready to kick ass, but he hadn't reacted quickly because he'd noticed that Parker had been freaked.

Parker bent over, pressing her hands into her thighs. "What are you doing here?"

Eliot pushed his hair out of his face and crossed his arms over his chest. "Nate couldn't get you on the coms or your phone. We've got a job."

"Oh," Parker said simply. She smiled at him. "Let's go." She started to walk past Eliot, the nightmare still clinging to her. It wasn't Eliot's fault, but she wished he would have come a few minutes later.

Eliot grabbed her arm. "Parker, what were you doing standing on the ledge?"

Stopping she looked back at him. Concern was written in Eliot's features. She changed her smile from 'cool we've a got job' to a more reassuring one. "I was letting it clean me."

Eliot's eyes narrowed as he realized this was a crazy thing. "Can't you take a shower like everyone else?"

"The wind does what water can't," She told him and started walking away again.

"Parker," Eliot called.

With a sigh she swung around. "Nate is going to be mad enough at me already."

"Just answer one question." Eliot walked up to her. Parker spread her hands and gave him a look. He waited until he was close to her and looked Parker pointedly in the eyes. Eliot wanted to gage her reply. "Were you thinking about jumping?"

Parker stared at him for a moment, trying to gage the question. "Of course I was thinking about jumping. It's what I do. I jump off buildings."

Sighing in frustration Eliot glared at her. "No, Parker, I mean were you thinking about killing yourself?"

A giggle came out of Parker's mouth by a snort. "Kill myself! Seriously? If I wanted to do that I wouldn't jump off a building! I wouldn't taint something I love by killing myself doing it!" Another fit of laughter hit her. "If I was going to kill myself I'd go scuba diving in underwater caves, take some C4, and cause a cave in. When the air runs out, I'd suffocate!" Her eyes were wide and excited as she explained it.

Realizing that Parker was just insane Eliot shook his head. He took her by the arm and headed for the door. "It's creepy that you've got a plan you know that right?"

"Why?"

Instead of trying to explain it, Eliot just said, "There's somethin' wrong with you."

Parker's eyes lost a bit of shine at that statement. Everyone was always saying that about her, but even more so, she didn't like Eliot touching her right now. The nightmare wasn't gone. She pulled out of his grip. "So I've been told," She said dryly.

Eliot glanced at her as they entered the elevator. "So what were you doing up there?"

Parker's turned to look at him. "I told you getting clean."

"Clean from what?" Eliot asked.

Parker shifted and looked back at the red light that told them what floor they were passing. "Why do you have so many questions?"

Eliot growled and balled his hands into fists. "Just forget it." Parker was so irritating sometimes.

They made it to the ground floor and headed to the car. There was a flash.

_Parker was younger, smaller, more vulnerable and he knew it. It was dark, his face was always a shadow, but Parker knew who he was. He took a step towards her._

Parker stumbled; the only thing keeping her from falling completely was Eliot's grip on her arm. Shaking her head she saw his lips moving, but couldn't make out the words.

"..Rker…o, ay…"

She shook her head again, shaking off the confusion. "What?"

"Are you okay?" He asked again, his blue eyes staring at her intently.

Standing straight again, Parker squared her shoulders. "I'm fine. Let's go." She walked ahead of him.

For a moment Eliot just watched her walk. Parker was acting odd, even for Parker. He didn't like it. Eliot followed her out to the street and they got in the car. He started the engine, but didn't pull away. Resting his hand on the wheel he turned in his seat to look at her.

"Parker look, I don't know what's going on with you," He said seriously. "But you need to put it in check. We've got a job to do."

Her gaze narrowed. "I'll be fine."

He laughed. "You're never fine, Parker." Her eyes squinted and the laugh faded. "No, I mean, you're Parker. It's…" Stopping, Eliot took a deep breath to stop digging himself into a hole. "Look, something's off with you."

"Yeah, well if you'd have let me finish getting clean I would be okay," She snapped at him.

"Okay, what is this obsession with cleanliness?" He asked. "And why exactly is it that standing on the ledge of a balcony is going to make you clean?"

"Look, are you going to drive or should I walk?" Parker didn't like Eliot asking all these questions. He wouldn't understand. He would just repeat his favorite phrase about her and she was not in the mood to hear it.

With a shake of his head, Eliot put the car in drive. _There's something wrong with you. _ Only this time, he thought it was something more than usual.

The car ride was silent. Parker rolled down the window letting the wind blow against her face. It helped, but it wasn't the same. It wasn't what she needed. There was another flash.

_Parker was hiding in the closet. She knew he was drunk. His footsteps were always heavier when he was drunk. He didn't breathe through his nose either. It was through his mouth and you could hear him sucking up saliva every so often. Parker stayed quiet. When he was drunk it was harder for him to find her when she hid._

A blinding light pulled Parker from the flash. Her breath caught in her throat and she had to remind herself how to breathe again. "What was that?"

Eliot looked over at her. He noticed how she seemed to stiffen, her eyes widening, going off into her own place. "What was what?"

"That light? It was big and bright? How did you not see it?" Her voice was getting higher as she asked the questions.

"Relax, Parker, I saw it," He shook his head. "Some jerk had his high beams on, that's all."

"Oh." Silently she tanked whoever had been driving.

"That's it," Eliot told her. "I'm having Nate pull you from this job."

She jerked her head to look at him, the end of her ponytail whipping Parker on the cheek. "What? Pull me? No, why pull me?"

"Because, Parker, we can't be in the middle of a job and have you going off to the special place in your head that makes you stab people with forks." Parker flinched and Eliot felt a twinge of regret for the choice of words. "We have to be able to rely on you, Parker and right now, I don't think you can rely on you."

"That doesn't make any sense. I can always rely on me."

Eliot looked over at her puzzled face. Making Parker understand was like trying to get a camel to thread a needle. "Whatever's going on in that crazy brain of yours is distracting you."

"Well yeah," She shrugged. "But if you hadn't pulled me off the balcony then I'd be fine."

"What the hell was I supposed to do?" Frustration was getting the best of him and he pressed down on the gas. "I thought you were going to jump."

"But I wasn't."

Eliot whipped around a car that was going to slow for his tastes. "Yeah, but I didn't know that."

"Don't have Nate pull me off the job," Parker told him in a soft voice. "As soon as he tells me what I need to jump off of, I'll be fine. Most of it was cleaned off of me, and when I jump, the rest will be too. My head will be on straight."

He snorted. "Darlin' you're head ain't never gonna be on straight."

"Just, trust me, all right?"

A sigh escaped Eliot's lips. "Parker, I trust you enough to work jobs with you all the time, but if I think something's wrong, I'm not gonna let you go in."

"But…"

"No but's," Eliot told her. "Whatever's going on with you, you need to either fix it now, or I'm going to tell Nate to scratch you from this job."

Crossing her arms over her chest, Parker slumped down in her seat. "Take a right at this light."

"What?" Eliot asked.

"Just do it," She snapped. "You want my head clear for the job then let me do what I have to."

Eliot looked over at her. He saw something in Parker's eyes, but he couldn't quite tell what it was. The only thing anyone usually saw was either blankness or the spark of insanity. Reading her other emotions, if Parker had other emotions was not something easily done. Still he took the right and followed her directions.

Parker lead them to an abandoned warehouse. One they were now standing on top of. For a moment Parker stood in the center of the roof. Arms out, she spun in a circle with her chin lifted towards the sky.

Eliot watched her, not really understanding what the hell she was doing. They had called Nate letting him know they had to make a pit stop. The mastermind wasn't thrilled, but Eliot told him they had to take care of something. Looking at his watch, he realized this was turning into more than a pit stop. "Uh Parker, whatever you're going to do, can you please do it?"

"Shhh!" She snapped. "I have to let the wind talk to me first."

"What?" Parker didn't answer and Eliot just shook his head.

The wind caressed her skin, but it wasn't enough. Parker was feeling it out, letting it tell her which ledge to stand on. The breeze was coming from the east. When she was sure, she walked over to the side of the building the wind was coming from and stepped up on the edge.

Eliot looked over the side and then back to Parker. "Are you sure about this? You don't have any of your rigging on. If you fall…"

"I won't, now be quiet." She told him.

Taking a deep shuddering breath, Parker closed her eyes and mimicked the pose she had on the ledge at her pent house. A gust slammed itself against her, rocking her back. She pushed back against it, balancing herself, not noticing that Eliot was extremely close to her incase anything were to happen.

Images of the nightmare bubbled up in Parker's mind and each time there was a flash, a gust of wind slammed against her. If she fell back the wind wouldn't carry it away. If she braced against it the harsh gusts would blow it all off her body, out of her mind, and take it away, somewhere far, far away.

The reel in her mind kept going and the wind kept taking them from her. It was quick like someone fast forwarding a tape, but the images still made her cringe. That's why she needed the wind. It whipped it out of her mind.

When the wind took the last image from her mind, Parker shuddered and hopped back onto the ledge. A bout of dizziness hit her and she swayed. Eliot gripped her arm, helping her stand straight.

"Parker," Eliot asked. When she kept blinking he took her other arm so he was standing in front of her. "Parker!"

Parker gave herself one final shake and smiled at him. "I'm clean now." A giggle escaped her lips as Parker's usual sense of self washed over her.

"You sure you're okay?" He asked looking at her worriedly.

A puzzled look swept over her face again. "I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be fine?" Parker waved him off. "Come on, we better go. Nate's going to go to his angry place if we don't get there soon." She headed for the door.

Eliot watched her go, unsure of what exactly just happened. He put it out of his mind. This was Parker. She was insane, but whatever did just happen, for some reason Eliot didn't like it. It made him curious about her past, but Eliot would never ask. The team never did.

"There's something wrong with you," He whispered softly and followed her out.

~End~ Please Review...everyone favorites, but no one reviews, and that makes me upset...in my special angry place!


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